Jeff Sandquist's Seven Day Rule for Software
Jeff Sandquist - a Microsoft Evangelist - has a seven day rule for software junkies. His crieteria for what constitutes a "keeper" is eerily like my own. It's like the guy was reading my mind ;^)
Jeff Sandquist - Microsoft Evangelist - If its good enough for seven days I'll buy it
If its good enough for seven days I'll buy it
Tonight Scoble mentioned, my seven day rule for evaluating software and I figured I'd explain a bit more about my short attention span for new applications.
I love to try out new software all the time, in fact its sort of an obsession. I'm always on the prowl for cool new applications. After seven days of use though if I'm not totally blowon away or if its not improving my PC life, its straight to add/remove programs I go. (Please, have a good un-installer).
I actually go as far as to set a reminder in Outlook for seven days from the installation date. When that reminder goes off I either send the author a cheque for their great work (even if its a 30 day evaluation) or I remove the application from my system.
Some of the applications which have made it past my seven day rule have included Newsgator, David Allen's Outlook Add-in, and ActiveWords. This week it is the Groove 3.0 Beta, which appears to be a winner.
If I'm not using the application regularly after seven days, I remove it from my system. It keeps my system clean (hopefully it is a good uninstaller) and I move onto the next new good thing.